KARACHI: Two sanitation workers died on Wednesday after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a company’s underground tank at Port Qasim, police and rescue service officials said.

Bin Qasim SHO Faisal Rafiq told Dawn that two sanitation workers were called by the company for cleaning their septic tank. They had been cleaning the tank when they became unconscious apparently due to the presence of toxic gases.

They were retrieved from the tank and taken to a nearby hospital in Gulshan-i-Hadeed, where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.

The officer opined that they had apparently died of suffocation. The victims were identified as Stephen and Dhani Parto.

Later, the bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities, the officer added.

It may be noted that on June 10, a sanitation worker, two brothers and three others died after inhaling toxic gases in an underground water tank in Ibrahim Hyderi. The sanitation worker was cleaning the tank when he fell unconscious, and four others attempted to rescue him, succumbing to the gases one by one.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025